The world without any considerable doubt can be easily considered as one big market. Trade and business are the only two things that keep the world running. Yes, there are inventions and discoveries as well, but they are also traded to get through with an ample amount of profit.

People can easily come around with one or the other form of business. Either they own it or work for it. Each of these businesses thus has their financial statements and records. Without these, the business may well disappear.

There are many forms of finances that a person might practically have to deal with. There are the mutual fund investments. There are the hedge funds and many more. There are many best financial services companies that are present nowadays that help people.

These financial services companies ensure of the very fact that people do get the best results from the business that they are in. There are various advantages that people may enjoy if they hire the financial service companies.

Financial planning:
Before moving further on the topic, people should understand that what exactly is the financial planning? This is something that can help people in a long course of time and thus help in managing the finances the best.

Why Recruit the Financial Service Companies?
There are many reasons why a person should think of hiring these services. Financial services can be well considered as one of the very important services, and the following are the various advantages that the companies providing them can guarantee:

• Consulting: Yes! The financial consultancy services are one of those most important things that are necessary before any decision to invest. Consulting helps in various things. People can ensure that they are getting through with the most important knowledge of finance and these companies do provide with that.
• Taking Care: the main aim is to take care of each and every financial gains and loss in the company. Evaluating them and taking the necessary actions. These can be done by the professionals only, and this is the only reason why people should ensure that they do have one of these financial companies to aid them.

Apart from these two important advantages that people can come around with they should also ensure that there will be much more advantages if people select the best ones for themselves. Only the very top financial services companies can ensure of the fact that the best services will be provided.

The following are the best advantages of recruiting the top notch services:
Free Services: The top financial service companies believe in the very fact that the people can only get the very best of the results if they do have a hope in the fact that their services by no means are frauds. This is the exact reason why they provide the people with the various free financial planning services.

Varied Services: This is again one of the major advantages of the top notch companies. The very first thing is that each and every company that is top notch is there because of the excellent knowledge that they do possess. They believe in the fact that the various services that they will provide ill attract the customer’s attention. They have knowledge about various things like portfolio management.

Creation of The Portfolio: This is something that cannot be achieved excellently just by any company. Only the top notch ones will work the best to provide with absolutely marvellous results on the portfolio. They will change as well as customize them according to the customers. Also, they will help in managing them.

Appointing the financial management companies can be the best thing that people can do. Remembering to select the best financial planners though is really important.

One of the biggest threats that most Portfolio Managers face is the prevalence of legacy systems.

Over the past three decades, investment advisors have been empowered by the advent of technology from simple spreadsheets to complex home-grown systems. From that time to the present, the industry has seen exponential growth and with it, enormous complexity. Challenges include round-the-clock trading in markets from New York to Sydney, varying accounting standards, shortened settlement cycles, and of course, increased regulation and security issues to name a few. As if that were not enough, technology seems to change every day leaving many legacy systems struggling to keep up with customer demands. Cheaper, faster, smarter, and more efficient norms are expected – they cannot be the exception. Failing systems can sharply undermine your company’s ability to service its customers and maintain its market share, much less grow the business.

In this age of big data, business intelligence, and data analytics, legacy systems can represent a massive risk to your business. If day-to-day operations require the ability to manage process, distribute, and accurately report financial data, being behind the curve is not an option. If this sounds familiar, it is time to ask, “How did we get here?” and more importantly “How do we get out?”

Here are the seven signs that will tell you if you have a decaying system and how it must ideally operate:

1. Facing difficulties while managing data due to disparate systems?

Maintaining data in different systems or manually moving move data from one system to another will lead to inconsistency and errors. Is your data quickly identifiable, consistent across multiple systems, complete, accurate, and reconciled among different systems? If your answer is a NO to these questions, you must reevaluate your platform. Your system must be able to eliminate manual data flow, update all the data with a single change, deliver timely and accurate reporting including intra-day, and make data easily traceable.

2. Are your client communications professional?

Investors expect your reporting to be clear, concise, and highly customized to their needs. This statement holds especially true for institutional investors. Organizations that can meet these expectations will have an immense competitive advantage over those that cannot. If your current system does not deliver the level of reporting your clients expect, you will run the risk of falling behind.

Your client expectations are not limited to the form and content of reporting, but also to how you deliver information. They expect instant access to real-time information, be it through a web portal or a mobile platform to stay relevant and highly competitive, your systems must be flexible enough to send and receive communications via any channel of your client’s choosing.

3. Struggling to cope with complex global investments?

Dealing with multiple regional and global investment regulations such as UCITS V and VI, Solvency II, AIFMD, and EMIR is a daunting task. All these regulations require you to maintain reliable, accurate, and transparent data. To comply with these regulations, you need Workflow Management, Data Management, and accurate reporting. Data, managing risk, and maintaining accuracy is critical to comply with regulatory reporting requirements.

With the increase in data sources and data complexities, your organizations need solution providers who can help you manage your data. Your system must not only be scalable but also provide actionable business intelligence in a format that is easily understood.

4. Finding it hard to achieve Integration of disparate systems?

Real integration is not a matter of simply connecting systems – your systems must be able to talk to each other seamlessly. Manually moving data from one system to another affects your efficiency, thereby, increasing the risk of errors. Integrating disparate systems not only reduces these risks but also improves efficiency by ensuring that back office and front office personnel can view transactions, cash positions, and holdings identically. This ensures that the entries are recorded accurately in your Investment Book of Records (IBOR).

Many organizations use multiple systems for accounting, reporting, reconciliation and managing client information. If different vendors have provided these systems, making them talk to each other could be a challenging process. If you have workarounds or portfolios that reside outside of your legacy system, it is time to rethink its usability. Your system must allow centralized and standardized portfolio management activity. In an end-to-end portfolio management solution that is built on open architecture, the work of multiple systems is consolidated into a single platform. Such a solution will allow easy access to third-party systems or any other system that is built in-house, thereby enabling you to reduce technology footprint while driving greater efficiency.

5. Escalating legal and compliance costs?

A 2013 survey of Chief Technology Officers suggests that one of the biggest operations and technology challenges that asset managers face is to comply with the current and future regulatory requirements. The complex regulations make outdated reporting systems more of a liability than an asset. The compliance costs of regulations such as AIFMD, UCITS V, and VI, or FATCA-are overtaking many budgets. Additionally, aggregating data from different systems for compliance reporting is a risky and resource-consuming process. To reduce these risks and costs simultaneously, your system must be prepared to deliver consolidated reporting, by leveraging automation, integration, and standardization of data from various sources. Your systems must also eliminate the manual compilation of data for reporting, thereby increasing efficiency and cutting associated compliance labor costs while ensuring integrity, consistency, and reducing your operating risk.

6. Being scrutinized by Investors’ due diligence?

After surviving the global economic crisis of 2008, institutional investors have become extremely wary of due diligence, leading to immense scrutiny of operations. The 2008 crisis exposed operational risks – the risk of failure that not only involved market forces but also the lack of infrastructure and controls. Investors have also become increasingly tech-savvy; they are asking the right questions and know what to find. To remain competitive in this vital market, your system must stand up to the intense investor scrutiny. You must show that you have the controls in place to manage the risks efficiently and that you are already adhering to well-organized processes. If Investors sense any gaps in your workflow and find that you are dependent on manual processes and workarounds, they will take their money elsewhere.

7. Legacy systems are not supported, serviced, or enhanced in the way you expect?

A product is only as good as its provider. Is you provider paying enough attention to you after the sale with 24/7 support? Does your provider have a track record of continuous product updates? Do they provide product training? Are they attentive to your suggestions or new ideas? Your provider must provide long-term support if you want your new system to last. Your product must be scalable, flexible, and must be built on open source technologies. In addition, your provider must not only help you set up but also ensure that your systems perform optimally without any disruptions. A relationship is a two-way street; as such, providers must be able to respond to your issues quickly, and also help your business adopt new functionality as and when it is needed.

Invest in your growth

A portfolio management system is the heart of your business. With a weak system, your business can be at serious risk, and you may not have the time to address it before it fails completely. Investing in technology will give you greater efficiency, reduced risks, and help you make informed decisions. Your provider, therefore, must have a proven track record of being committed to long-standing services, continuous improvement, and support you as you grow.

Inflation is a steady rise in prices, owing to which, incomes and savings of the population will depreciate. Even the weakest inflation is dangerous for the development of the modern monetary economy. Therefore, all countries (including the most developed ones), take anti-inflationary measures to reduce inflation rates.

What causes?

Inflation – a monetary phenomenon associated with issuance of excessive money for circulation compared with the supply of goods. This increase in money occurs for various reasons. And the first of them is the growth of incomes of the population, not supported by a corresponding increase in the production of goods. This excessive demand pushes up prices and increases inflation rate. This imbalance between supply and demand for goods and services can also be resulted by crop failures, import restrictions, or actions of the monopolists. Also, rising costs of the production and increasing expenses of enterprises for wages, taxes, interest payments and others highly contributes to increase of inflation rates. Furthermore, the increase in prices for imported components shows both an increase in world prices and weakening of the national currency. The weakened national currency can directly affect the prices of the final products imported from abroad. The overall effect of exchange rate changes on price dynamics is called the “transfer effect” and is often viewed as a separate inflation factor. An essential role in the development of the inflationary process is played by the so-called waiting moments. The expected rise in prices forces the population to buy goods. Thus, a deficit is created for some of them, and, consequently, prices are rising. It is difficult to bring down such inflationary expectations.

Inflation can take many forms. In a regulated economy (such existed in the USSR), as well as in wartime conditions, when prices are fixed, it can have a hidden character – this is so-called suppressed inflation. It is followed by the deficit of many products, a surge in shadow trade, a sharp increase in prices in the markets, etc. However, the repudiation of such regulation (after the war or in countries that have passed from an administratively regulated to a market economy) often generates “galloping inflation” with a frenzied price increase. It arises from the discrepancy between the supply of money and the insufficient quantity of goods.
The other forms of inflation include:

– Administrative inflation – the inflation generated by “administratively” operated prices;

– Galloping inflation – inflation in the form of spasmodic increase in prices;

– Hyperinflation – inflation with very high growth rate of the prices;

– Built- in inflation – characterized by the average level for a certain period of time;

– Imported inflation – the inflation caused by influence of external factors, for example excessive inflow to the country of foreign currency and increase in import prices;

-Induced inflation – the inflation caused by influence of factors of the economic nature, external factors;

– Credit inflation – the inflation caused by excessive credit expansion;

– Unforeseen inflation – the rate of inflation which has appeared above expected for a certain period;

– Expected inflation – the estimated rate of inflation in future period owing to action of factors of the current period;

– Open inflation – inflation due to increase in prices of consumer goods and production resources;

Negative Consequences of High Inflation

High inflation rate decreases purchasing power of all economic entities which negatively affects demand, the economic growth, the standards of living of the population, and moods in society. Depreciation of the income narrows opportunities and undermines incentives to saving that interferes with formation of a steady financial basis for investment. Besides, high inflation is accompanied by the increased uncertainty which complicates decision-making of economic entities. Overall inflation negatively influences savings, consumption, production, investments and general conditions for sustainable development of economy.

How to decrease?

Fighting inflation, as the experience of developed countries shows, is extremely difficult. It seems easy: freezing prices or introduce some form of regulation for prices. Unfortunately, this method is effective for a short time only. The freezing of prices will soon be triggered by an increase in the deficit of goods and will further exacerbate inflation. The other method of fighting inflation is through contractionary monetary policy. The aim of this policy is to reduce the money supply within an economy by increasing interest rates. This helps to reduce spending because those who have money want to keep it and save it, instead of spending it. It also means less available credit, which also reduces spending.

Emergency financial situations can happen to anybody and any financial arrangement exercise is not ideal without planning for such occasions. The whole idea of having an emergency fund is to offer a cushion against any unexpected expense.

This will ensure it does not have any negative impact on your financial condition and does not rip off the whole financial security.

There are many circumstances which can cause a financial emergency such as a sudden illness, accident, medical emergencies, emergency house repairs, loss of a job, emergency car repairs and much more.

The major reason for having an emergency fund is very clear because when a person falls into an emergency financial situation, they will have to break their savings or make a compromise to get the needed money.

It’s not rare to find people who just take out their credit card and swipe it for hard cash. Opposing popular opinions, credit cards are the worst way to fund any financial emergency. The fastest way to get thousands of dollars its to get a car title loan it is not a long-term solution but a short-term solution.

In a circumstance where you’ve taken a cash advance with your credit card to get the needed money, the credit card company will charge you a cash advance fee with an interest rate. This is a very costly way to borrow and manage finances for emergency situations.

Therefore, what is the best amount that should be set aside as emergency money? There are diverse opinions on it. Some professional’s experts agree that a minimum of 3-6 months’ worth of monthly income should be set aside for an emergency situation. This amount can differ according to marital status, the size of family and lifestyle.

Everyone must reserve some extra cash in case of emergencies. But, the amount to reserve depends on your income and monthly expenses. The amount that is needed for your emergency fund is open to debate, the minimum amount should be sufficient to cover your expenses for daily living for at least 3 months. It’s also ideal to save for 6 months even though some financial advisers agree on a full year worth of cash.

These funds must be kept aside in an instrument, which is easily available when needed. It could be money in a bank account, hard cash, liquid funds or fixed deposits. This will ensure the fund is always accessible instantly or within a short period when it’s needed.

Where to Keep the Cash

Your situations and what can offer you peace of mind are the factors that can help you determine how cautious you want to be. Keep your emergency fund somewhere that is safe and accessible because you may be required to get the cash in a hurry when an emergency arises. The best option you’ve is to open a money market account or savings account. But, always examine their offer with regards to the interest rate, minimum balance, and other terms.

When you think you’ve saved enough, you can stop. You can now sleep easier and try to start placing your extra saving into higher-interest and less accessible accounts or investments.

Your taxes have just been filed and now it’s time for spring cleaning – clearing out the dirt and clutter in your homes and work space to allow for a chore-free summer. Why not also use this opportunity to “clean” up your finances? With a little annual clean-up and our three ideas, you can keep your current financial situation well-organized, streamlined and up-to-date.

Clear the document clutter

We are all human and sometimes accumulate piles of important documents and statements. Now is the time to look through your financial documents and consider which to keep and which to discard. Keep recurring documents, such as investment and bank statements, property and casualty insurance renewals or social security and retirement statements, for one year. You need only keep household bills and credit card statements until you have a record that the bill was paid (unless you need these statements as evidence for tax filing or proof of purchase). Shred all outdated and unnecessary statements.

Try organizing your saved documents into a folder with the newest date on top. This way, if you go looking for a specific document, you won’t shuffle through a year’s worth of back up. Maybe, you prefer storing everything digitally. If so, consider naming folders starting with the year, followed by the two-digit month and ending with the name of the institution or document. This keeps the files sorted in an easy, chronological order. Remember, all electronic files should be backed up regularly, whether stored locally or in the cloud. These days, there are plenty of that will sync your devices and securely back up your storage.

When you pare down and keep only what is necessary – for tax purposes and tracking financial records – you’ll have less clutter and a better understanding of what is in your possession.

Consolidate retirement accounts

How many retirement accounts have you accumulated? Throughout your career, you may have switched employers and acquired multiple retirement accounts. You’re not alone: Many people have aging 401(k)s, IRAs and other retirement accounts of convenience. Talk about financial clutter! Now is a great time to consolidate these. IRAs, SEP IRAs and SIMPLE IRAs can all be consolidated into a single IRA. (Roth IRAs can only combine with other Roth IRAs.) Old 401(k)s can also be rolled into your IRA. When distributing an old 401(k) into your IRA, be sure to review the investment options and expenses in the 401(k) as compared to what is available in your IRA. Combining multiple accounts, may save you fees and most certainly will save you paperwork. Most importantly, you and your advisor can more easily and strategically invest your retirement account for today and the future. When it comes time to take withdrawals, calculations and taxes will be much easier as well.

Update your critical information

Finally, as you begin to clear the financial clutter, you may have various accounts and people who have changed since the last time you organized. That’s why this is a great time to record all your critical information in one central location. We like to call this your critical records organizer. If you already have your information in one organizer, maybe your information is outdated or professionals have changed. Use this spring cleaning time to review the information and make updates. If you have never organized your important information, you should include all your current account numbers, access information and professional contacts. You might like to keep this information in hard copy or choose a mobile app (such as 1Password) or cloud-based document service (such as Dropbox). Creating a central location of this information is not only useful for you each year, it might become critical for your family. You might have account information and professionals in your life that you interact with, but the rest of your family may not know how to contact. Once you update and organize your critical information, remember to let the important people in your family know where they can find this information for the future.< By keeping important account statements in one place, tossing recurring documents, and shredding unnecessary or outdated personal paperwork, you can clear the document clutter in your life. Consolidating multiple accounts that have lingered over time, will bring you fresh confidence and control over your nest egg, and updating your information in a central location keeps you protected for the future.

Step One: Know your ‘as-is’ process:

I knew all too well in my days of selling e-invoicing, that if a prospect didn’t know their ‘as-is’ process, they were a good 12 to 24 months from implementing e-invoicing. So don’t skip Step One.

If you don’t know your process, you probably don’t know key metrics like your First Time Match Rate. This means you won’t know the degree to which e-invoicing might help you (and you may have problems in your process which need other solutions, as well).

And, you probably don’t know the true cost of your invoicing process, and therefore will not be able to put together a water-tight business case.

By mapping out your ‘as is’ process you will come to understand:

• Why invoices fail
• How e-invoicing can remedy problems in your process flow
• How many invoices would be ‘in scope’ should you proceed with e-invoicing
• What your ‘as-is’ cost is, and how much it will go down by moving to electronic
• How many days it’s currently taking to process an invoice, and how e-invoicing would reduce the time
• How, by reducing the number of days, your capturing of negotiated discounts might be favorably effected

Step One is likely to take you 3 to 6 months, but by the end of it you’ll be clearer and more realistic when you make your business case.

Importantly, knowing your cost-per-transaction is essential for negotiating effectively with the provider you end up signing.

Step Two: Know the vision of the company:

Process change makes sense to stakeholders when it is contextualized against the overarching ambitions of the company.

This means it’s worth taking the time to understand where the company wants to be in 6, 12 or 24 months’ time, and you can extrapolate that intention back to how e-invoicing might accelerate or bolster the realization of that goal. Take the time to lift yourself from the ‘day to day’ and understand where the company is headed. (Ask lots of questions, and really listen to the answers.) Then you can:

1. Understand and communicate the wider purpose of e-invoicing and position e-invoicing as a key enabler for realizing goals
2. Use the language of the senior management to present e-invoicing back to them
3. Move e-invoicing up the priority list

This endeavor requires planning, and an investment of time outside your day job, but it will pay off down the road, when your CFO and CPO and CTO (Chief Treasury Officer) see e-invoicing as their single point of failure.

Step Three: Get procurement on board early

This is easier for an organization where Finance and Procurement are already aligned, already share reporting lines and objectives, and operate as one team.

But in organizations where this ‘joined-upness’ doesn’t exist, it’s common for Finance to own the project, because they get the more immediate gains, and involve Procurement almost as an afterthought. This can kill the project on the spot.

This is largely because e-invoicing is a supplier-focused program, and even though Finance, or rather Accounts Payable, pays suppliers, they are actually owned by Procurement. This means suppliers will listen to Procurement regarding the e-invoicing project first, and finance second. So if procurement are not brought in, or are at all dismissive of e-invoicing, your suppliers will feel this mood, and drag their heels in signing up.

This is perhaps the key to getting e-invoicing right, and so easily overlooked as a small detail. It’s not. It will make – or catastrophically break – your project.

When working with Procurement, consider the following:

• Drivers – why are we doing e-invoicing?
• Scope – all suppliers, invoice types, AP transaction types, countries?
• Solution scope – just e-invoicing or an end to end solution?
• Message – mandatory or optional?
• Quality of the database – will the comms ‘land on the right desk’?
• Signatory – how senior will the signatories be? The CPO and the CFO? (Ideally, yes.)
• Targets – are Finance and Procurement KPI’d on the same targets?
• The non-compliant – who will respond to the suppliers that resist?
• Who will own the project? Perhaps Finance and Procurement together?

Investing time in seeking out a partnership from Procurement early on is fundamental to a successful project.

Step Four: Give the project a name

You will likely find that the nameless projects stay in project status for a long time, and rarely move to operational or ‘go live’. This is not a coincidence.

By giving your e-invoicing project both a pre- and post- contract name, you:

1. Give it an identity which helps people ‘get it’
2. Create interest and curiosity (‘what is this Globe project everyone’s talking about?’)
3. Avoid confusion because you’re all talking about the same thing
4. Heighten engagement and inspire greater emotional attachment, especially, I find, if you stay away from the obvious like Globe, Probe, e-Procurement Project – all decent names, but how about something more fun, like names of characters from movies or fiction? Or having a competition (with a really good prize) to come up with the most creative name?

Step Five: Know what you’re shopping for

What do you want? Is it a best-of-breed e-invoicing solution? Is it e-invoicing with dynamic discounting? Is it e-invoicing with workflow and routing, or an e-procurement functionality for your upstream procurement process? Do you need it to be VAT compliant and language sensitive because you are rolling out across multiple countries? And do you need to use their onboarding capabilities? (This is always advisable.)

Knowing what you want, and then capturing these requirements in a document is key.

You will have:

• Commercial and business requirements
• Process requirements
• Scope requirements (impacting the legal treatment and the languages supported)
• IT requirements (but these are probably weighted lightly, as all e-invoicing solutions I know of are system agnostic)
• Resource or/and timing requirements

Then make sure that the companies you invite to respond to the RFP all offer similar-ish services, so you are not comparing one solution type against another completely different solution type in order to make a decision.

Step Six: Determine the cost of delayed-implementation

Quantifying the cost of doing nothing – ‘continuing as per’, and having this as a daily, weekly, monthly and annual figure, will help drive a deadline.

It’s advisable to build this figure with the main stakeholders, so they all agree on it, and understand that, allowing the project to slip by a month is actually costing the company X.

Having the daily figure will help drive the pace of the project.

Step Seven: Follow the best practices of the provider

The provider you end up selecting will have likely rolled out 20 – 100 e-invoicing programs (if it is one of the bigger providers like Tungsten, Ariba, Taulia or Tradeshift). This means you will be benefiting from their experience, which is now structured, and documented.

Some providers swear by their best-practices so much that they attach a guarantee to their invoice conversion.

Best practices will include advice like “clean your suppler data, or let us clean it”, “have procurement sign off on the communication”, “be available and ready to respond when some suppliers say they won’t comply with the request”.

Selecting an IP for your company is a decision that should be taken with a lot of care because it is very important. You may need an IP so as to close the company or to get help so as to turn around the company and start getting profits once more.

The choice you make of the practitioner determines just how well you can achieve the outcomes that the company desires. It affects the experience you get at an overall level and the process used to reach a desirable outcome.

What they do

There are many roles a practitioner can carry out and they involve working with companies that are insolvent. They may also take part in the structuring and overseeing the company’s closure as to get an outcome that is the best for the company and the creditors. They are also involved in the company restructuring and the negotiation of agreements with the company creditors so as to get profits again.

The IP work closely with companies that are insolvent so as to get an outcome that is the best in the circumstances that prevail at that particular moment.

Finding the ideal IP

Before you select the IP, it is important to find a qualified and certified one. There are different resources that are available in the public domain that can allow you go about this easily. Most governments offer the information on a page so as to make it easy for individuals and companies to find a qualified practitioner based on county, city, town and name.

Things that should be considered

Licensing

The IP needs licensing so as to practice within the law. There are different regulatory bodies that are trusted with the task to license the IPs. Each country and locality has got its own bodies and you should make sure that the company that you settle for is recognized in the area you reside in. Licensing is an important factor because it is only with licensing that the practitioner is allowed to undertake functions within the set laws. The IP may be required to act as a liquidator, a supervisor or an administrator.

Experience

It is essential to hold a conversation or initial meeting with the IP you have wanted to appoint. During the meeting, the IP should give clarifications regarding the company situation and the possible course of action that could help the company.

During the interview, find out more about the experience that they have and whether or not similar situations were handled in the past and what the outcome was. This will tell you a lot and will allow you to name a sound decision.

Trust

Regardless of the course of action that you choose to take, it is always a difficult time. You should engage an IP that you can trust because you may have to work with them for an unspecified period of time. IP has fiduciary duties like conducting themselves with integrity band competence. You should be very comfortable with them.

Solid terms and conditions for your invoices are extremely important for your small business. If your invoices are complicated to understand or confusing to read, you may do some severe damage to your cash flow. Why? Mainly because if the client can’t understand your invoice they’re not going just pay. Your client wants to be sure that they’re being priced the proper amount of the goods or services that they requested.

1. Start thinking about all potential legal problems and scenarios.

The first thing that you must do before writing down your terms and conditions is to list all the probable legal obstacles or circumstances that could happen.

As an example:

• What measures will you take if the client does not pay the invoice?
• What will happen if you’re past due on delivering your services or products or service to the customer?
• What will you do if the client is dissatisfied with your goods and services?
• What will happen if the product or service is damaged when being provided by your client’s delivery service?
• Are there any incentives if your customers pay beforehand?
• What kind of rate of interest would you like to charge for late payments?
• What if the customer is interested to renegotiate the contract just after the two parties agree to the terms and conditions?
• Can your customer request a reimburse? If it does, what scenarios would allow for this?
• What will happen if the scope of the work becomes wider?
• If there was a misestimate on a budget or quote, who is going to pay for it?
• Who is responsible if a product breaks after being bought?
• What strategy will you undertake it the agreement or contract is terminated?

It might take a little time to think about and formulate this list, but as soon as you have got all of this written down you will be in a position to write future conditions and terms in a flash with the other clients that you will add to your client list. Most importantly, having the most appropriate terms and conditions for your firm will ensure that you are compensated and take care of your business if legal action is ever undertaken.

2. PROVIDE ALL CRUCIAL PARTS OF AN INVOICE.

Featuring the all-important elements of an invoice isn’t going to only speed-up the payment process, it will also answer whatever questions that the client has with regards to the goods or services that you provided for them.

When generating invoices, ensure that that you include:

• Your logo
• Invoice number
• Your contact information
• Your client’s contact information
• The due date
• The products or services you provided and their costs
• The forms of payment that you accept
• Early payment invoice discounts or enforce late fees

Before mailing out the invoice, ensure that all the information is right and that it’s being sent to the correct person. Any errors can easily slow-up the payment process and make you appear less professional.

3. CLEARLY EXPLAIN THE PRODUCTS/SERVICES BEING PROVIDED OR SCOPE OR THE PROJECT.

This is certainly the most relevant part of the terms and conditions on your invoice. Why? Because it describes what particularly the client is paying you for.

Like for example, if you are hired to make an internet-site for a client and it’s more than the client has imagined, having a description of the time and expenses it cost you to finish job answers any kind of questions or doubts relating to the final sum of the invoice.

4. SHORTEN YOUR PAYMENT TERMS

This should be {is kind of} obvious, but when you give customers a lot of time to make a payment, the longer it takes for you to get paid, which in turns leads to a slower cash flow.

So if you have a customer 45 days to pay an invoice, for instance, and that customer paid you a couple of weeks late, that means you’ve waited 2 whole months to receive a payment.

A payment term of 30 days or even less is the standard when it comes to invoicing simply because it’s helpful in keeping the cash flowing. Nevertheless, review your industry’s invoice standards and check with the client when their pay cycle runs. These factors can help you establish your payment terms.

5. HIGHLIGHT GUARANTEES AND WARRANTIES

It is not unusual for any business that is selling goods and services too often give guarantees and warranties. It makes them look more legit and reputable and gives the customer assurance. If you do provide a guarantee or warranty, make sure that is clearly outlined in your terms and conditions.

Never forget to address topics like situations where the client/customer loses their guarantee or warranty.

6. PURSUE LATE PAYMENTS.

Generally, there will be times when customers won’t pay invoices by the due date. Instead of being passive, you need to be persistent by tracking down those particular late payments.

Regularly keep track of your customers’ payment due dates and get in contact with them by telephone, e-mail, or mail if they have not paid you by the due date and feature late-fee terms on your invoices, like charging interest on over due payments – which a trusted cloud-based invoicing software will do for you automatically.

In case you can’t get a hold of the late-paying client, or they are not responsive to follow-ups, you may possibly have to send a collection letter, hire a collection agency, or take them to court. Make all of this information crystal clear from the beginning.

7. ONE SIZE DOES NOT FIT ALL.

Be sure that your terms are specifically created for your business. Remember, your business does not have the identical requirements, resources, and clients that other businesses have. Because of this you can’t really just copy and paste the terms and conditions from a commonly used template or another business considering that they probably won’t address your particular needs.

A template is really good for starting and directing you in the right directions, but ultimately you have to write terms and conditions that best match your business and clientele.

8. ALWAYS BE PROFESSIONAL AND POLITE.

Being polite can have a beneficial influence on your business. Simply adding a phrase such as kindly pay your invoice within twenty-one days” or “thank you for your business” can, in fact, increase the number of invoices getting paid by more than 5 percent! This may not sound like much, but this can result in thousands of us dollars per year right into your banking account.
Aside from assisting you get paid faster, being professional and polite can easily make improvements to your brand’s image.

9. MAKE THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS UNCOMPLICATED TO READ.

Keep the language in your conditions and terms simplified and intuitive. Put yourself in the shoes of your clients’ customers and realize that they’re not all familiar with industry terminology and even bookkeeping terms, like for example “net 30.”

Additionally, don’t aim to hide every single thing on just one page by using a small font so that your clients are not able to read the fine print. It will look tricky to your client and will ruin your reputation (regardless if there is nothing tricky on your invoice).

10. WHEN IN DOUBT, ASK FOR HELP.

When all else fails to perform as expected, or you wind up in a sophisticated or specialized situation, don’t hesitate to seek guidance from your mentor, fellow business managers, or your attorney. These are individuals that have experience in writing terms and conditions and are more acquainted with laws and regulations then you are.

The two financial things that require your attention include the price that you pay for your home and car. Every penny that you spend is because of your hard work and it is your foremost responsibility to see that it is not wasted. The presence of good negotiation skills is a deal changer and it can help you save up to 15% on the total amount of your car. Therefore, before you set out to close your deal at the dealership lot, sharpening your negotiation skills will benefit you in the long run.

From Negotiating to Closing the Deal: Tips that will do the Tricks

Keeping the following points in mind will help you negotiate to effectively close a deal and buy a car.

1) Get a Price

The best way to be confident while negotiating a car price is to have clarity. Research various online portals such as Edmunds and TrueCar to help you obtain an estimated price on the exact car that you wish to purchase. Additionally, walk into multiple car dealerships and try to get the lowest price for the car.

2) Pay Less than the Listed Price

The thumb rule of negotiating is to always start the negotiation from your lowest offer. For instance, if you wish to purchase a used Ford-150 pickup truck that is listed at $20,000, make sure that you close the deal at a price less than $20,000. New cars and used cars always contain certain margins for the dealers. Therefore, reduce the margin gap and close the deal at a price that is profitable for you.

3) Finance First

If you don’t want to apply with a bank, auto manufacturers have their own captive financing company and dealers have dealership financing to help you. There are many options available to you when you wish to purchase a car. But it is always better to be prepared. Apply for a pre-approved auto loan before visiting the dealership lot. Once you have your financing in place, compare and choose the deal that reaps you the most gains.

4) Total Price over Monthly Payments

Never close a deal that primarily focuses on the monthly payment of your car over the total price. You should always negotiate on the total price as it is the actual amount that will become the principal of your auto loan. Assets such as cars depreciate over time. So, a term of five years or less is recommended as a longer loan term will cost you more money than the worth of the car.

5) Lastly, Trade-In!

Only after you have negotiated your best and obtained a good price, mention that you have a car that you would wish to trade-in. The reason you should trade-in your old car at the end of the deal is that the dealers dupe buyers by manipulating the price of the new car. If you want to enjoy the best deal, check the price of your old car on Edmunds and CarFax before you finalize the deal.

Tactics, Tools & Tricks for making an Affordable Car Purchase

Negotiation is all about being active and alert while speaking to the salesperson. Express your pain at the first price that is quoted to you and name dealerships that are giving you competitive pricing while showing equal interest in the deal. Small tactics and tricks such as these will help you win big and save a lot of dollars in the process.

Owning a property is one of the things most people dream of. The reason why they buy the property is going to have a certain impact on how they will be able to procure it. A mortgage broker Sheffield is one of the first people you can get in touch with to learn more about your options. This is where you will find some mortgage advice Sheffield.

There are many different situations you have to deal with when you want to buy a house. Since few people afford to close the deal with the money down out of their own funds, you have to focus on the solutions you can turn to when you do not have the means for it. There are quite a few options you can make the most of for any of your situations.

One of the first things you have to do is find the source you can rely on for the options you are interested in. Usually you turn to a bank to find financial solutions for your problems, but this is not always the ideal solution. A mortgage broker Sheffield is the ideal solution for any situation you are in since he can tailor each option for your needs.

If you go into a bank trying to find the financial products you are interested in, they will have a limited number of options to present. This happens because they are restricted to their portfolio and they are not able to deliver answers from other institutions. These restrictions do not influence a broker because he works with just about any institution.

But first you have to focus on why you are interested in a mortgage loan in the first place. People who want to move into their own home after spending years paying rent are the ones that apply for a loan for the first time. This can be a little tricky if you do not have a certain credit history, but you will find a number of options to buy your first home.

Moving into a new home is also one of the things you will deal with at least once in your life. This happens because you will need a bigger house once you start a family and you need the extra room. You may look for a new place due to a new job offer and so on. Relocating is a special situation and you have to find the solutions that suit you best.

Remortgaging is also a solution you can turn to when you need some extra money or you are looking for better terms on the deal you had initially. Some institutions offer better interest, they get rid of fees and many other costs just so you can transfer your mortgage loan. At the same time, the extra cash can be used to renovate or any other reason.

People who live in council houses have the right to buy the properties at a discounted price. If you want to apply for a mortgage loan to achieve this goal, you have to go through a certain process. If you do not want to stray from the path, you have to get in touch with an expert and ask for mortgage advice Sheffield to be sure about what to expect.

Some people are interested in buying a home to create an additional source of income. If you want to buy a property to let it, you will qualify for a loan with certain terms. This is why you have to take the time to analyze just about any offer you will find on the market. A broker can provide the help you need so you can get things done a lot faster.

One of the things you have to keep in mind is that you do not have to earn a monthly salary to apply for a mortgage loan. Self employed people can find a number of solutions they can make the most of depending on the income they generate. You can have quite a few sources that can be taken into account and each of them can help you with it.

Analyzing all the offers on the market and finding the advice you need in every financial institution you will visit is a lot more complicated than you think. If you want to let others do it for you, you must get in touch with a broker. This is the expert that will present all the solutions you can make the most of for your given situation.